3).  An awkward moment.

My husband and I call our awkward moments “Larry David Moments”.  Larry David is the billionaire who along with Jerry Seinfeld created Seinfeld (“George” was modeled after him). He also created and is currently starring in my favorite show of all time, Curb Your Enthusiasm.  We get free HBO and have seen them all, and you can always rent them at your local library.  Larry David plays Larry David, the rest of the people around him are actors and Larry is not a particularly likable fellow.  And he is always getting into awkward situations, and when Grant and I get into them ourselves we say, “I had a “Larry David” moment.

So here is my most recent Larry David moment.

I was at a birthday party for one of Tyler’s friends and started talking to one of the other moms.  I didn’t know her, but her daughters had gone to Tyler’s school, but she had decided to take them out. We had maybe a month in common together of one of her daughters and my son being in the school and they would have been in the same class.  “Where does “Rachel” go now?” I asked, as her other daughter was older than Tyler and I wanted to know if she had had any problem with the school.

“Oh, no, no problems, my mother just teaches at Solomon Schechter Day School and I wanted her to be with her.”  “Oh, my mother also taught at a day care but she lived too far away for me to put Tyler in”, I replied. If you care not to click on the Solomon Schechter link and do not know, this is a Jewish day school that identifies itself with Conservative Judaism.  I would probably not send my child there as we are Christians and that would be a bit confusing to Tyler.

Now something else you must know about my husband and I is that, although we both come from a Jewish ethnic background, neither of us follow the Jewish religion.  I was raised Christian and Grant is an Agnostic.  But, we certainly do not hide the fact that we do have a large part of our family who does follow Judaism and we do attend some Jewish holidays.  It was very interesting way to have grown up for me!  Because of our ties to Judaism, we identify with Jews…like Larry David in fact, and we make jokes about our Jewish background.  Not bad ones, just ones that I think would make other Jewish people laugh.

But when one looks at me or even Grant you certainly do not think, “Jew”, and that can work for or against us, depending upon the situation.

So when this woman told me her own mother was working at the day school, I assumed that she was Jewish.  No big deal, I am not prejudiced, because I AM racially, ethnically Jewish, at least part of me is, you follow?

It turned out that Tyler and Rachel had a little romance at the party and did not want to leave each other so at the end of the party the only people left were the parents of the birthday boy, close family like the grandparents, Rachel’s mother, and I.  We all sat talking and I heard Rachel’s mother mention camp.  “You camp?” I asked.  “Oh, no I was talking about sleep-away camp.”  “Oh yeah”, I said, “Because my husband always says that Jews don’t camp.”

“HOW DID YOU KNOW I WAS JEWISH?”, she hissed.  Her fingers flew to her throat, searching for the Jewish star that she was not wearing.  “I-I-you-you-said that-“ I was so embarrassed and stammering! “Oh, yes.  I told you my daughter was going to Solomon Schechter.  Of course you would know that I am Jewish.  I am sorry.”

And then I felt the need to tell her about how my husband and I both have Jewish ethnic backgrounds and went on and on, to convince her I was not anti-semetic.

And a few minutes later, we pulled our little Romeo and Juliet apart and left the party, most likely never to see one another again.

The post My Most Recent Awkward Moment first appeared on Mama Sick.

This Saturday, Tyler and I went to our library’s thrice yearly book sale. The whole book sale really tickes Tyler, going to the library and getting to KEEP a book??  Being a Mommy Blogger, I get plenty of books sent to me so I usually go just to pick out a few for Tyler.  The paperbacks are 50 cents, the hard covers a dollar-fifty, so I make sure I just don’t simply pile a stack into our basket as money remains tight.

Two books stuck out for us on our trip.  We came across Noah’s Arc by Lucy Cousins, who is best knows for her Maisy the Mouse series, but she also writes some downright hilarious versions of fairy tales such as The Three Little Pigs or Little Red Riding Hood, with some incredible illustrations.

We picked up Noah’s Ark right away, me counting my good fortune.

As a young man who worked there was helping us look for things that suited our needs, as every thing was pretty much mixed all around, we both spied upon The Children’s Bible.

“I had the exact same Bible when I a was a child”, I said, tears forming in my eyes. “So did I”, he said.  Tyler was still a little big for the 500 plus pages but I decided this was indeed a keeper.  Noah’s Arc and The Bible, what great finds, among a few others.

On Saturday night, Tyler and I were going through our loot of books.  I love childrens books, love to read to Tyler, and get just as excited as he does, maybe even more to read them! Tyler chose Ms. Cousins’s Noah’s Ark and I dove right in, thinking we would learn the story as well as get a good chuckle. To my surprise it was a straight, serious read, albeit with beautifully illustrated pages.

I had a hard time trying to explain the concept of Noahs Ark, how God told him to pack up his wife and kids, and two animals of every species into a giant boat, and how God was going to flood the rest of the world and kill everyone else and every other animal with it.

This was worse than the movies I have let Tyler watch.

Why Mommy, Tyler asked.  Why would God do that?

I told him that when God first put people on the earth they became bad, but Noah was good, and God was going to destroy every living thing except Noah and his children and two animals of every kind, so that the animals could have babies.  I dont study The Bible that much never but I did remember that God told Noah that he would never ever do that again, so we didn’t have to worry about it.

Tyler still had more questions and so I said, Would you like to read more about Noahs Ark in The Bible?, and he said yes.  My heart skipped a beat as Tyler has taken to religion the way he has taken to water. Talk about scarier than a movie.  I guess we children were tougher back in those days as I had to explain to Tyler that the animals and the people were drowning while the flood was happening.

Mommy, whats a flood?  Whats drowning?

We stopped reading after the rain stopped.

Is this how parents teach their children about religion?  Being a mom with chronic illness, pain and fatigue, I have never taken Tyler to church, although I know I need to and I want to. Its hard because there is no one around me who is a Catholic.  Grant is Agnostic.

I know that next year, in the first grade, Tyler will have to start CCD if he is to make his Holy First Communion on time.

I had made my peace with God and Jesus.  I have a strong belief in Them but I do not believe that They are holding it against me that I am not attending church, as I am usually sleeping, and not the lazy, sleeping-in way, but the way that if I do not sleep I will get very ill type of way.  I think They get that.

But I have a well child.  A well child who I AM trying to do things for, like taking him to the library or to karate class.  And now I will have to find it in me to take my well child to Church for there is no one else to do it for me. Please God and Jesus, let me be well enough to be able to take my little boy to church, even if it isnt every week, please let me be able to do this for him…and for me.

The post Tuesdays With Tyler: Gaining My Religion, at the Book Sale first appeared on Mama Sick.